Vanamagan

Vanamagan is that less researched movie which clearly has no big aims. We all know the Tarzan story and A L Vijay tries to pitch a desi Tarzan film to the audience with a very peripheral story line. With the usual formula of song and dance somewhat saving the movie from being an extremely lackluster experience, Vanamagan is a disappointment that could have at least been a popcorn entertainer.

Kavya is this arrogant rich girl (attitude much Similar to Kareena in K3G). Her New Year celebration plan along with friends got shifted to Andaman and during the celebrations they met with an accident and as a result of it a tribal man whom Kavya decides to address as Vasi (derived from Kattuvaasi) comes in to her life. The changes that happen in Kavya’s life after his entry is what ultimately Vanamagan all about.

Vanamagan had the scope to be an interesting movie. Because Vijay takes a man with no clue about the modern world and puts him right in the middle of it. He doesn’t know about doors, he just breaks wall to enter a place, he finds mobile phones weird, he sleeps on trees, and he even looks at the rear side of a phone when one person was doing a video call. All these elements are a bit refreshing and genuine form of humor. But the problem is that director and writer Vijay has no intention to use these elements in building a story. The nature of Kavya and the arrogance she shows looks so artificial. The luxury in her life looks fake. Post interval the movie is pretty much a Tarzan where Prakash Raj’s character is hunting the couple. And with all the theatrical preaching and tacky visual effects aided shots, Vanamagan simply fails to excite the viewer.

Jayam Ravi will definitely remember this movie as the one where he spent least time inside the dubbing studio. Very rarely he utters any word and the effort is more of a physical one in being that rough, yet sensitive tribe. Sayyesha who is a dancer shows her dancing skills through the songs and looking at the kind of expressions she has got I would say she has a future here, down south. For the first time I found Mr. Thambi Ramaiah’s comedy somewhat funny. Usually his performances look way too loud. Other mentionable performance is of Mr. Prakash Raj who is this routine antagonist who looks like the baddy from the moment he is shown in the movie.

It could be A L Vijay’s wish to make something like Tarzan that prompted him to do this project. But the treatment and lack of a novel story makes it unexciting. You get to see songs just for the sake of having songs and they are popping out without any relevance. The changes happening to the character of Kavya looks too drastic. There is a scene where Vasi lifts a girl and puts her in front of her husband and the kind of advice the movie is trying to put across through such sequences looks lame to be honest. The heroine is trying to communicate to the hero by googling how to train an animal and honestly I couldn’t sense any compassion in that decision. Tirru’s cinematography tries its best to capture the wild in its best form. But the visual effects department disappoints hugely in pulling off some of the set pieces. There is a scene where a tiger creepily smiles at Sayyesha (Shakti Kapoor wala smile) and the whole audience found the scene very funny; rare moments of unintentional comedy. The edits look bizarre in the first half an hour or so. Harris Jayaraj’s music will sort of remind you of the hit tunes he has composed in his top form. The BGM was underwhelming.

Vanamagan fails to impress you with its story and making. The kinds of creativity we get to see in some of the comic sequences are the only positive side of this A L Vijay movie. Other than that it feels like a flat film.

Rating: 2/5